Hungry Hungry Hippos
by Enthusiastic Fish
Summary: Tim introduces Ziva to a classic American game...with unexpected dividends. Oneshot.


**A/N:** This is a short oneshot which I wrote for smackalicious on her birthday. If you know anything about her, you'll know what this story is going to be. The inspiration for it came from that loud and fun 80s game. So enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I do not now, nor have I ever owned NCIS. I'm not getting any money for my writing. Pity.

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**Hungry Hungry Hippos  
**by Enthusiastic Fish

Darrin opened the warehouse. "You're welcome to look around, but I doubt there's anything in here...besides toys."

Tim grinned. "We're missing a bullet and the trajectory puts it in this direction. If we could just look for it, that would be great."

"Feel free. We've been collecting these toys since the beginning of the summer. I don't want anything to be ruined."

Tim looked around the warehouse, at the filled shelves. "Are all of these donated?"

"Yep. Every single one...and every single one will be given away by Christmas."

"That is wonderful," Ziva said. "We collect toys at NCIS...but it is nothing on this scale."

Darrin smiled and nodded. "Do you me to hang around?"

"No, that is fine. We are able to look ourselves."

"All right. Just let me know when you're done." Darrin left them alone.

Once he was gone, Ziva grimaced.

"What a waste of time. Searching through all these toys for a bullet that we do not need!"

"Yeah, but..." Tim grinned. "We get to look through the toys!"

Ziva rolled her eyes.

"We should just get it done."

Tim chuckled but nodded. "I'll start on this side. You can start over there. If you find a good one, let me know."

Ziva suppressed a smile and turned to the shelves.

For a long while, they worked in silence. No reason to speak, just to work.

Then, there was the sound of marbles.

Ziva turned around.

"McGee?"

Tim cleared his throat and poked his head out from behind a shelf, looking a little guilty.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

He shook he head innocently. "Nothing."

"McGee. We are NCIS agents, not children."

"But, Ziva! ...They've got Hungry Hungry Hippos!"

"What?"

Tim held up a game board.

"Hungry Hungry Hippos!"

"What is that?"

"It's only one the best games to come out of the 80s!"

Ziva put on a severe expression. "McGee, I would expect this of Tony, but not of you."

"Come on, Ziva. Look!" Tim held it out. "How could you not be intrigued?"

Reluctantly, Ziva climbed down off the stepladder and walked over to where Tim still enticingly displayed the game. The board had four hippos, yes, they were definitely hippos, and a large number of white marbles.

"What are the rules?" she asked, curious.

"Ha! I knew you couldn't resist. The rules are simple. You try to get the most marbles by hitting the lever." He demonstrated and to Ziva's surprise, the head extended out and a ridiculously long neck toward the center of the board. "Wanna play?"

"McGee, we are supposed to be working."

"It doesn't take long! We'll put it right back."

"Very well," Ziva said, trying to be stern but failing miserably.

Tim laughed and knelt on the floor, forcing Ziva to follow him.

"Ready?"

She positioned her hand over the orange hippo and nodded.

"Go!" Tim began hitting the lever of the green hippo at a breakneck pace, forcing Ziva to try and catch up as the marbles began disappearing into the tray of the green hippo.

"I'm winning!" Tim crowed.

"You cheated!" Ziva said, trying to regain lost ground.

"No way!"

They continued, laughing and giggling until all the marbles were gone.

"I won!" Tim said. "I have the most!"

"We must play again. You cheated."

"I did not. You're just a sore loser."

Ziva smiled. "Then, we can play again and see."

"Fine. Fine."

They returned the marbles to the board and began again. This time, Ziva was ready and hit quickly. They both were still laughing when the marbles were gone again...and this time, Ziva had barely edged Tim out for victory.

"Okay," Tim said. "Best two out of three. ...and this time, we'll each control two of them."

Laughing, Ziva agree and positioned her hand over the yellow hippo, leaving the pink for Tim.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Get set," Tim said.

"Go!" they cried together.

...but they only got as far as one (maybe two) hits. Instead of a marble going down into the pink tray, there was a strange-sounding clink. Tim and Ziva looked at each other.

"You don't think–?" he began.

"Did you not look?" Ziva asked.

"I did! I didn't see..." Tim lifted it up, and sure enough, there was a hole in the back corner, just beside the pink hippo. "It must have been hanging off the shelf. I did look!"

"Where was it?" Ziva demanded, back to business. "We must get the trajectory correct!"

"I know! You think I didn't check first?"

"You missed the bullet!"

"Hey, we wouldn't have seen it at _all_ if I hadn't taken it off the shelf!"

Quickly, they ran around to where Tim had been searching and replaced the game, looking carefully at Tim's photos and then rearranging it.

"There. That's where it was," Tim said confidently, snapping more pictures of it and the angle. Then, they took the game back off the shelf and put it in an evidence bag, leaving markers of the angle of entry and headed out of the warehouse.

Darrin saw them from where he was talking to Gibbs and came over.

"You found it?"

"Yes, the bullet was lodged in this game."

"Any others?"

"Not that we found. The game was on the edge of the shelf and simply caught the bullet inside it."

Tony joined them and laughed. "Hey, it's Hungry Hungry Hippos! I haven't seen that game in _ages_!"

"It's still really popular," Darrin said. "Well, it's definitely not good to us with a bullet hole."

"I'm sure it still works," Tim said with wide-eyed innocence.

Ziva suppressed a snort of laughter.

"Yes, but we will need it for evidence."

"I understand, of course," Darrin said.

"However, we do not wish to deprive you of your toys," Ziva said. "We will buy and donate a replacement."

"Thank you," Darrin said. "That's very nice."

"I'm sorry that the firefight spread into this area," Tim said. "It's a miracle no one got hurt...with the exception of a poor pink hippo, of course."

Darrin smiled and agreed. As they headed back to the van, Ziva finally could not hold her laughter in anymore.

"McGee, you are so lucky!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Ziva."

"You got out of the third game," she said.

"If we can buy one game, we can buy two."

"Oh really?" Ziva asked, challenging him.

"Absolutely. I can't let you think you're better than I am at Hungry Hungry Hippos."

"Oh, yes? And when will you prove your prowess?"

"How about this weekend?" he asked. "When we've got time to do it properly."

"My place or yours?"

"I think I'll need the home court advantage. You can come to my place."

"Is that a proposition?"

Tim flushed. "I think it is."

Ziva leaned in. "Good. We will see who is the champion hippo."

Tim laughed. "And what does the winner get?"

"I can think of a few things," she said suggestively and then walked away.

Tim watched her go...and decided he couldn't wait for Saturday.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

_Saturday night..._

The only sound in the apartment was the giggling of two adults and the noise of hippos gobbling up white marbles. Then, the sounds stopped, replaced by quiet counting.

"I win!"

The triumphant declaration was quickly cut off and then it was replaced by a sound remarkably like that of a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos being knocked off the bed and onto the floor.

"You'll break my game, Ziva!" Tim said, his voice slightly muffled.

"You won," Ziva replied. "This time. I am just giving you your reward."

A long silence.

"Wow. Do I get that every time?"

"Only if you win."

"Rematch?" Tim suggested.

"If we can find all the marbles."

"I'll help you look."

FINIS!


End file.
